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Writers Block or The Unconscious Mind?

To write, or not to write? Is it a choice or simply a mindset? See, I believe everyone can be creative in one way or another, it’s just our outlets that differ. To some people it could be song writing, others simply writing stories, but we’re all creative in some way. So what is your way? Do you know? You either do or you have no clue, there’s no in between, or is there? I’m contradicting myself aren’t I? But who really knows these things anyways ? I guess the question I really want to discuss is; Does Writers Block Exist?

There has been a complex discussion on this matter for years but many people have come to the conclusion that it’s an act of mind over matter. Some people find themselves in the mids of writers block, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be writing to go through this. I believe anything creative can go through a block, the creative parts of our brains can become overpowered by the less thrilling things in life. Whether your an artist or dancer. It takes skill to master a certain technique and sometimes time to develop these ideas. So is this writers block? Or just you putting that creative side on hold. Let’s discuss..

I am a strong believer that it does exist but I will be unbiased for the sake of this blog post. I want to appear less lenient to one side but stay neutral, so let’s begin the argument.

Writers block does exist!

As mentioned earlier our brains go through a lot, and sometimes we starve our imaginations with the dull parts of lives. You might be someone who has a full time job or a student which can be quite draining, so when it’s time for your imagination to run wild, it feels as if it has no energy to do so.

Let’s take the traditional story teller, where the phrase, writers blog emerged. Writers use their imagination to guide their stories, but if your mind is drained itself how is it supposed to conjure up new ideas and allow you to run with a made up story. It’ll take you longer to process your ideas and longer to keep them going. This is sometimes what people identify as writers block, when your mind has given up on ideas and it feels as if your looking at a blank notepad. Nothing.
Some of you may say, I don’t work or my job isn’t draining but I still suffer from this. I understand that, let’s try to identify why? Just like a job getting in the way, other things can to. Your subconscious is something many of us forget about, but it almost never forgets about our daily lives. Certain things that go on in our lives sits in our unconscious minds although we may forget it. For example, we may not feel stressed or under pressure but something that happened last night or even last week may still be sitting with us but in our unconscious minds. This has an impact on how we are able to allow our minds to run freely. This may sound complex but believe me, think about it for a second and I’m sure you’ll see the relevance. If we’re angry, worried or even upset about a situation that hasn’t been resolved, we place it into our unconscious minds unknowingly, thus putting our imagination on hold. However this can be reversed, when a situation happens to us our imagination lights up and we are able to play on the event, causing us to sometimes have a ‘spur of the moment’ idea and act on it.

So writers block does exist, our minds just need a rest or we need to re-evaluate the actions within your daily lives because it can have an effect on how much we can concentrate and focus on the creative parts of life. So instead of beating yourself up because you can’t think of any new ideas, take a second and just breathe. Look at what’s going on your life, something your trying to not deal with might be stopping you from focusing.

Writers block does not exist!

“Writers block is utter bullsh*t” – I remember my lecturer almost screaming that at us as he read his memoir to the lecture theatre. I wasn’t that bothered until I realised what he had said. The comment sat with me for a while, I was trying to come to terms with why he thought it didn’t exist, I thought everyone did.

At the time I felt as if I was going through writers block since I hadn’t written anything in a while. It got me thinking, if this wasn’t writers block then what was it. While searching and speaking to my fellow colleagues on my course it became clear why many people didn’t believe it to be true, which then questioned my own actions.

My lecturer said, people who claim to be going through writers block are lazy. He argued, “if you want to write you will, simple”. It then became clear, If you have a passion for something you will always find a way back to it, whether you like it or not. A person who can sing doesn’t go through a stage where they can’t sing anymore even if they try, they can sing all the time. Creative people have a particular spark when it comes to their outlet, not doing it is the act of suppressing that urge, whether it’s intentional or unintentional.

When studying the reasons for why someone feels like they cannot write anymore, we need to focus on their emotions. For years I believed I had writers block but when I became older I realised I was (to an extent) holding off the urge or ignoring it because I had personal issues of believing in myself and self worth. This feeling then smoothed over to my creative side, and I was unconsciously sabotaging myself. So, sometimes we can believe that writers block is a faze we go through, when in reality it’s something we have caused ourselves.

Not only does writers block apply to creativity, but can also apply to other things in our lives. Such as the roles within your job, student duties and your personal life. We all can feel like we have writers block, with no real push to actually do something no matter how hard we try.

Exist or doesn’t exist?

I hope I have given a clear two way argument and I’m sure if you’ve made it this far into my writing, you have a decision yourself. Of course, I cannot give you a clear answer because no one knows whether it does or does not. I’ve just given you things to think about. Although, I can say that I do believe in it, there is a time when we feel like a part of us is on hold, whether it is because of something that is going on in our lives or we’re doing it to ourselves unconsciously, it’s there and I can’t argue against that.
However, if you are reading this and believe you are struggling with it, try a change of scenery. I didn’t start writing again until I moved away for university!